Friday, September 2, 2011

Chocolate Chip Cookies and Genealogy

Today feels like I think September should feel. It is cloudy, a few sprinkles of rain and a very cool breeze. What a change from 99 degrees that greeted us on September 1st (yesterday). It's a pleasant change. It makes me think about a different kind of genealogical research, such as roaming a cemetery, looking at interesting tombstones, finding stones for relatives and just absorbing the change of season.

Since my last post I am still not organized. I have decided it might make a good winter project. Maybe I won't be able to put it off until the snow flies. Today I'm taking a needed break from my book so I can blog (also needed), write an article, go for a walk and maybe stopping by a cemetery. Several years ago I had a boss who referred to these days as "chocolate chip days." He would try to talk me into taking the day off to bake cookies with pay. I'm going to call days like this "the enjoy genealogy days."

You Go Genealogy Girl #2 has been doing catch up from her trips this summer, plus resting and reading. She is still doing research even though she has an aching, failing computer. Occasionally I can hear her all the way to my house (more than 100 miles) telling the computer that it has to go, possibly by putting a give away sign on it and placing it on her sidewalk.

In my busy days of non-stop writing, I have discovered some interesting things that I'll share. I know many of you, myself included, are not fond of the library catalog on the new web site for Family Search. One way to overcome some of the frustration is to use both catalogs, the new site and old site. The more frequently you use the new site for the library catalog, the more adept you will become.

Another tip ... Ancestry.com is great for searching "Historical Documents", but there's a lot more you need to do. From the pull down menu of Search, select "Search All Records." Up pops a listing of databases by category such as census, military, newspapers and more. If you are specifically interested in one of those categories, browse through the collections available. Should your research be in a specific area, such as the state of Kansas, click on the state in the US map or the link below to see what is available in all collections for that state. This will enhance and enlarge your research possibilities beyond just searching "Historical Documents."

Time to decide if I'm going to write the article, go for a walk or bake chocolate chip cookies. Those cookies sound really good!

2 comments:

Cookies!!! Yes!! That picture made me so hungry for fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, but I'm up to my neck in canning tomatoes so no cookies for me. I'm enjoying the coolness too, but don't really appreciate having to go pick more tomatoes in the mud.

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Ruby Coleman, blog partner

Professional genealogist for over 25 years. Instructor of genealogy classes and designer of E-learning genealogy CD's. Lecturer at state and national conferences. Genealogy writer. Mother of two and Grandmother of two. I reside in North Platte, Nebraska.

Cheri Hopkins, blog partner

Retired from owning a sporting good business for 32 years. I now own my own photo business "CHERISHED PHOTO REFLECTIONS", I do photo restorations and Family Remembrance Art. I love history, genealogy research, reading, and collecting old photos. Travel, research and some lecturing also keep me busy. Mother of two and Grandmother of ten. I reside in Alliance, Nebraska.